Pokemon World Online
by TheSib
Summary: The latest VRMMO has just been released: Pokémon World Online. However, the game has a deadly secret. Once you log in, you cannot log out until the game has been beaten. Death in the game leads to death in real life. Enjoy the exciting adventures of Ren and Misaki as they travel through the Sinoh region, battling trainers, catching pokemon, and fighting for their lives.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Alright everyone. This is a new fanfic I'm working on. Please feel free to comment, review, and post any suggestions you have.**

After those words escaped my mouth, my mind felt like it was being teleported to a new world. In a way, it was.

I had just bought Pokemon World Online, the latest VRMMO released. Being a fan of the Pokemon series, this game was a must have.

After making my avatar, a red-haired boy, and typing in my avatar's name, "Ren". I was transported to what looked like a city the size of New York. "What's going on?" I wondered. Suddenly a masked figure appeared.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to Pokemon World Online."

Was this part of the tutorial?

"I sure most of you have noticed by now that the log out button on your menu is missing. However this is not a bug."

_What?!_

I immediately waved my hand to open the menu. Just as he had said, it was gone.

"What the hell is this!" "Let us out of here you bastard!" "Is this some kind of sick joke?" Various screams echoed throughout the city.

_Shut up you idiots!_

Whether they liked it or not, this was the current situation. Yelling at this guy would get us nowhere. But what he said next even made me speechless.

"I would now like to take a moment to explain the newly added rules to this world. First of all, if your pokemon's hp decreases to zero, it will die and vanish forever. This does not apply to official battles between other players however. In addition, each trainer has a hp bar as well. If your hp bar drops to zero, your avatar will be deleted and you will die"

The entire city fell dead silent after that last statement.

Die. That's impossible. This is a video game. You can't die in a video game. I kept trying to convince myself this, but I already knew the one fact that disproved my theory. Every word that man just said WAS REAL. There's no way anyone would take a joke that far.

"There is only one way to escape. You must beat the game. Obtain all 8 gym badges and defeat the Elite Four and you will then qualify for the world tournament. Win this tournament and you will find the secret to beat the game. Players, I wish you the best of luck."

After those words, my body was enveloped with a shining light.

What happened? I thought to myself while my head still felt dizzy. I looked around and saw what seemed like a small town filled with houses and one big building that said "Rowan PokeLab".

I must have been teleported to a region in the game. I realized. I pulled up my menu and then went to the world map. The layout seemed very similar to the Sinoh region from the 4th generation of pokemon.

So what now? Almost as if to answer my question, the quest tab on the menu came into my line of sight. I tapped it and my current mission came up. "Go to Lab and obtain starter pokemon." As I looked around I saw the majority of players were still shaken by the "death game" factor newly added to our misfortunes.

I ran to the lab. With things the way they are, feeling sorry for myself and crying would get me nowhere. Those that are too scared right now have a choice to make: fight or die. Sulking around would only lead to the latter of those two options.

Upon entering the lab I met Professor Rowan. He led me to a table with three poke balls on it. I now had a choice of which starter to pick.

Piplup  
Turtwig  
Chimchar

Almost instinctively I chose Chimchar. Fire types had never let me down before and they wouldn't let me down now.

Running out I noticed something had been added to my item bag. I pulled up the item tab and a 2 slots were filled. one said "poke balls 5x" on it, the usual start for any pokemon game. The other said "mirror".

_A mirror? Why put a mirror there?_

After pulling it out, the shocking truth answered my question. My face no longer had that of the avatar I made. Instead it was replaced by my real face. The red hair I had given my avatar instead had my natural brown colored hair. The outfit was still the same though: a blue jacket and black pants. I'll give this game master one thing: he sure knows how to add some surprises to this game.

Well now was no time to be admiring my looks. I headed straight for the woods leading to Jubelife City.

Training along the way went smoothly. I caught a Starly almost immediately upon entering the woods. After battling against the wild pokemon, Chimchar was at lvl 10 and Starly was at lvl 8. My money had increased by a decent amount too from battling the mobs of wild pokemon. I was just about to continue on now that Chimchar and Starly were at full health ( thank God for potions ), when suddenly I heard a scream.

**A/N: Well that's chapter 1 folks. I hope everyone liked it. Stay tuned for chapter 2**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Sorry it's taken so long to post this. I've been crazy busy with school stuff. I hope you like it.**

I followed the origin of the scream through the army of trees. A few wild pokemon appeared but my stronger Chimchar burned right through them with ember. I reached the scream's origin in a matter of seconds. It was a girl.

She looked about 16 years old. Her black hair flowed through the breeze. She wore a violet dress with a white miniskirt at the end. Her boots were also white with pink stripes at the side. She had a Piplup out, which seemed to be in bad shape. Its hp must be near its limit. The reason wasn't hard to figure out. After all, there were six other trainers surrounding her.

"Leave me alone!" she screamed.

"We told you already. Just hand over that Piplup and we'll be on our way." One of the players surrounding her said. He and his five buddies chuckled just like the criminal type of players they were portraying.

"Oh brother" I sighed. I hated this kind of group. Sure in a normal game playing the villain is fun, even I've tried it a couple of times. But in this type of game, where you can die, it's just wrong.

"I can't!" the girl exclaimed. "Piplup is my only pokemon. I'll never make it to Jubelife City on my own."

"That's your problem. In this game it's the strong that survive."

_Yeah and strength is ganging up on a girl 6 to 1? Give me a break._

"Alright everyone. Take that Piplup out!" said the one that seemed to be the head of the group.

At his command, all six of them called out commands to their pokemon, which seemed to be made up of 4 Turtwig and 2 Chimchar.

I couldn't take this any longer. "Chimchar use ember! Starly use wing attack!" I commanded.

The group of six was stunned by the sudden appearance of a new trainer. Their pokemon got swept up in my barrage attack. An opening for the girl to escape was now visible.

"Hurry! Run!" I yelled to the girl.

While she was stunned by my surprise appearance, she grasped the situation immediately. She nodded and took off into the trees.

"Why you! What's your problem man!" yelled their boss who had finally recovered from his shock.

I walked a few steps a spoke "If there's one thing I can't stand, it's a bunch of guys trying to act tough by ganging up on beginners. If you want pokemon, go out and catch them like respectable trainers."

"And you think you can take us punk!" said one of the thugs.

"I can give you a run for your money. But first you gotta catch me!" I yelled as I fled into the woods. To be honest I doubt I could take them all on at once. My only chance was to escape or get to a terrain that gave me more if an advantage.

I ran through the trees with my Chimchar and Starly next to me. The thugs however weren't gonna give me an easy time though. They were not too far behind, commanding their pokemon to attack. At least that girl was safe now, I thought, but what am I gonna do?

I reached the end if the trees, but there wasn't a town there. I was standing right on the edge of a steep, rocky hill.

I had no choice. I sled down the hill to a ledge. But going any further down was out of the question. It was a 90 degree angle going down, and at least a five story drop. My hp would hit zero for sure if I fell. My luck was running out as the gang chasing me slid down after me and cornered me on both sides. Running was no longer an option.

"Nowhere left to run punk" said the leader. "This'll teach you not to but into other people's bussiness!" With that they all ordered attacks for their pokemon. With Chimchar on one side and Starly on the other, neither of them would last through these attacks. And since this wasn't an official battle requested via the menu, once their hp hit zero they would die.

_Is this how it ends?_

The thought flashed through my mind. This was no longer a pokemon battle, this was a fight to the death. And I was on the losing end. There was no way I'd last through their group attack. But what happened next betrayed the expectations of both me and my six opponents.

"Piplup, use bubble beam!"

A shower of bubbles rained down on the thugs to my right, damaging their pokemon and stopping their attack. Shocked I looked up. I saw the girl I had just rescued at the top if the cliff. But something was different. She no longer had that scared look on her face. Instead she had a face full if confidence, ready to get her revenge. Her Piplup seemed fully healed, as raring to go as she was, and kept spitting out bubbles at its targets.

The gang could only cower in fear and dodge as many bubbles as they could. In shock, two of them slipped and fell off the narrow ledge we were all standing on, plummeting to their deaths. Once they hit the trees, they shattered like glass. Their pokemon that were still on the ledge also shattered following their trainers to their grave.

Now was my best chance! Immediately I turned to the enemies on my right and gave Chimchar a command.

"Chimchar use ember at their feet" I yelled.

A flurry of embers swept towards the three on my right. Dancing at my mercy, all three of them tripped and fell, like the two before them. All that remained was their leader that I turned around to face.

"You'll pay for this someday!" He snarled at me and ran away along the ledge in retreat.

"Oh no you don't!" cried the girl at the top. "Piplup use ..."

"WAIT LET HIM GO!" I yelled to the girl. Stunned at my words, she stopped her command and stared at me.

I know he deserved it, like his compatriots, but I stopped his death anyway. I had seen enough death for one day, no for one lifetime.

I returned Chimchar and Starly to their poke balls and climbed the cliff towards the black-haired female trainer.

**A/N: I hope we all enjoyed that battle. As always, reviews and comments are welcome.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Ok time to introduce everyone to a new character. We will finally find out the name of the Piplup trainer.**

"I guess I should thank you." the girl said.

"No, you don't need to thank me. If anything I should be thanking you. I would've been a goner if you hadn't shown up" I replied.

"Well it was the least I could do since you saved me. Oh that's right, I haven't introduced myself. My name's Misaki."

"I'm Ren. Nice to meet you."

"Likewise"

"So will you be alright going to Jubelife on your own, or do you want to go together?"

"Actually I was going to ask if you wanted to travel together. Not temporarily I mean, but as a traveling party."

A party? It made sense. We could get to cities easier and faster as a team. But still I hesitated. I had planned to travel on my own without building relationships with people. I didn't want to experience the sorrow it would bring if one of them died. But at the same time, I felt that I couldn't say no. I decided I had no choice.

"Sure. Let's do it." I replied.

"Alright let's get going then" Misaki exclaimed cheerfully.

We traveled through the woods without any problems. As a result of our battle with that gang of six, our pokemon's levels had gone up quite a bit. We reached Jubelife a little before nightfall.

The city was breathtaking. Multiple buildings rose out of the ground and illuminated the night sky. And that was honestly just the start. People filled the streets, both players and NPCs. The pokemon center and poke mart were so much taller than the ones in Sandgem Town. All together, the city seemed to give off an atmosphere that seemed like a very light violet aura.

Misaki and I found the pokemon center, healed our pokemon, and went to the nearest hotel. To save money we rented a room with two beds instead of two rooms with one bed each.

We decided to hit the hay early so we could head out early tomorrow.

I used the menu and changed into my pajama outfit which was just a black shirt and pants. I turned to see Misaki looking completely red in the face.

"What?" I asked.

"Turn around while I'm changing and if you peek I'll make your hp drop to zero faster than you can say sorry" Misaki sternly told me.

I immediately obeyed. Changing in PWO only required using the menu and changing your clothing, but I could understand how she felt. Having a guy look at her changing wasn't something she could bear.

We got into our separate beds and she drifted off to sleep, but for some reason I couldn't fall asleep. My mind was too busy thinking about all that happened today. I got trapped in a game, met Misaki, fought for my life. It was definitely the most eventful day I've had.

And this is only the first day of this death game. What other things are going to come my way as this game progresses. Lost in thought, I eventually drifted off to sleep.

_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_

_**Misaki POV:**_

Who is this guy I wondered. He seemed nice enough, considering he saved me. And he definitely had plenty of skill at battling. He's a great choice for a traveling companion. People are gonna need to form parties to survive this death game.

But still, teaming up with a complete stranger is such a weird feeling. Oh well, guess I can't back out now since I was the one to suggest teaming up. Who knows: maybe this'll be the start of some great adventure for me. "Good night Ren" I silently whispered as sleep took over me.

**A/N: Well that's Misaki folks. I hope you like her. Feel free to review, comment, or make suggestions.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Time for gym battle number 1. I'll be honest right now. I'm probably going to skip most of the gym battles. Just a word of warning.**

"Oh wow! Oregburgh City is so cool!" Misaki screamed.

I silently followed behind her as she ran up to the view of the city available to us since we had just exited the cave connecting Jubelife and Oreburgh. It was an impressive view I thought.

The city was probably about half the size of Jubelife City. While it wasn't filled with skyscrapers, unlike Jubelife, it did have a cool look. Tent-like huts covered the city, except for the pokemon center, poke mart, and what I'm guessing was the gym. The city seemed to look like one giant excavation site, which made sense. After all, this city had not only a rock type gym, but a mine as well. It was a great place for finding rock type pokemon to catch.

I didn't have any need to catch rock types. They wouldn't be helpful for most of the gyms in Sinoh, especially the first few. I opened my menu to check out my current team.

Monferno:lvl16  
Starly:lvl13

Starly would be useless at this gym, but Monferno's mach punch would probably be able to one-hit most of the gym leader's rock types. Come to think of it, I believe I heard the gym leaders were also players trapped in the game. However, since they had an unlimited number of copies of their team, they couldn't die here like the rest of us. Lucky them.

"So what about your team, Misaki?" I asked. "Do you think they'll win at the gym or do you want to train them some more?"

"Hmmm let me check." replied Misaki. She opened her menu and took a look at her team.

Piplup:lvl14  
Budew:lvl 10

Type wise, it seemed like a good enough team. Their levels were a little lower than I would have liked, but she should be fine.

"I think I'll be ok." she answered.

"Alright then" I said. "Let's go heal and then challenge the gym."

"Yeah" Misaki nodded.

After a quick stop to the pokemon center, we headed to the gym. To some surprise, there was a large group of players there.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"We're having a lottery draw for the next round of challengers." one player said. "Just register over here and the machine picks names at random.

"Oh that makes sense." I figured.

Misaki and I registered at the machine by simply scanning our pokedexes.

"Ok time for the next round of draws!" the machine said with an electronic voice. The screen showed a list of 5 boxes with names rapidly flashing, as if the rounds of a tournament were being decided. Finally it stopped and 5 names were shown.

Ryota  
Alice  
Ren  
Gao  
Misaki

Lucky us. Both Misaki and I get to go right away. Since we weren't up first in the list we had to wait in the stands for our turn though. But in a way that was good too. It gives us a chance to see how the gym leader battles.

"Let's get to the stands" I told Misaki.

She nodded and we headed up. From here we had a good view of the gym floor. It was rocky like a mountain, with larger boulders scattered across the battlefield.

"First up is Ryota!" said the gym leader. His cursor showed the name Roark.

The guy known as Ryota came up to the battlefield. I finally got a good look at him. He was dressed in a white jacket with black pants. He had pitch black hair that was combed to the right. The most impressive part was that he didn't seem nervous in the slightest.

"I'll make this quick" said Ryota. "Lets do this Shinx!" he yelled as he threw his poke ball out. Out came a Shinx that roared with all it's might.

A Shinx! What's this guy thinking! Most of the crowd chuckled at his seemingly amateur move.

"Sorry kid, but I won't be holding back, even if you're a newbie!" Roark confidently said. "Come on out, Geodude!"

Shinx vs Geodude. Looking at the matchup, Geodude had the clear advantage. But something was off. If he had such a big disadvantage, why did Ryota seem so calm. Not just calm, he even cracked a small smile on his face. Just what was his plan?

"Geodude tackle!" cried Roark. Geodude closed the distance between it and Shinx in a matter of moments.

"Shinx dodge!" said Ryota. Shinx dodged it at an amazing speed, causing Geodude to crash into the rock behind Shinx.

"Tackle one more time!" yelled Roark.

"Dodge again!" countered Ryota. Once again Shinx dodged and caused Geodude to crash.

"Finish it with bite!" commanded Ryota. Shinx bit on the recovering Geodude with tremendous force.

"Throw it!"

Shinx tossed its opponet into one of the nearby rocks, causing Geodude to shatter with it's depleted hp from the earlier crashes.

Roark, Misaki, me, the entire crowd was speechless.

"No way" I whispered under my breath.

One thing was for sure: this guy was not the amateur everyone thought he was at first.

"Not bad kid." admitted Roark. "But now I'm gonna go serious. Onix let's go!"

"Shinx return." said Ryota. "Turtwig let's finish this!"

Smart choice. Even if Roark would fall for Shinx's trick a second time, Onix was too heavy to deal a finishing blow with the same strategy. Turtwig on the other hand could use its grass type advantage to easily take down Onix.

The rest of the battle didn't last long. Turtwig's absorb and razor leaf attacks finished both Onix and Roark's last pokemon, Caraniados with ease.

"Looks like I win." smirked Ryota. After receiving his badge from Roark, he walked away.

Both mine and Misaki's battles went smoothly as well. My Monferno took down Roark's team easily with mach punch, while Misaki's Budew and Piplup overpowered Roark with a barrage of water and grass moves.

Out of the 5 battles in the group I was in, four of them ended in Roark's defeat. My opinion of the players stuck as gym leaders changed. At first I thought they were lucky because they couldn't die. But now I realized that they really should be pitied. All they could do was take on challenge after challenge, most of the time losing. Not only that, they also couldn't do anything about their predicament. At least the rest of us could try to fight our way to the world tournament, and help everyone escape. That feeling of helplessness must be tough to deal with.

"Next stop is Eterna City!" exclaimed Misaki in her usual cheerful tone.

The trip to Eterna City would take us back to Jubelife City, then north to Floroma Town, and after going through the Eterna Woods, we would finally arrive at Eterna City. The trip would probably take about one to two days. If we left now, we could reach Jubelife before nightfall.

"Alright then let's head out." I said.

After returning to Jubelife, we ate dinner and went to the hotel. We had gotten accustomed to traveling together so there was no longer any awkward feeling between the two of us.

"Hey Ren... What do you think about that Ryota guy?" Misaki said suddenly.

It was an odd question. I pondered it for a minute and replied

"Well for one thing he's crazy strong at battling. But he seems to be that mysterious lone wolf type."

"Yeah I noticed that. Why do you think he's like that? You originally planned on going solo, but I don't get it. Why would anyone want to take such a risk and go solo when you could die?"

She must not have a lot of experience playing MMOs I thought to myself.

"Well there's many reasons that some players go solo. Sometimes they're just antisocial. Others might travel solo cause they think partners would just slow them down."

"Ren... d-do you think of me as a burden that will just slow you down?" Misaki asked shyly.

The question shocked me. To be honest, my pokemon would be at a much higher level if I went solo. But at the same time, it would get lonely and I wouldn't be safe if a group attacked me, like that gang of six from day 1.

"No way" I replied. "Your not a burden trust me. Your great company, and you can hold your own in a battle. If anything you help me improve as a trainer. That's what friends do after all."

And with that, we both drifted off to sleep.

_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_

**Misaki POV:**

Am I really not a burden to him?

I'm thankful for all he's done, but what have I really done to help him? Sure, I fought against that group with him, but that was after he saved me. I can't just be some standby cheerleader anymore. I have to get stronger. Strong enough to help him just like he's helped me.

**A/N: So how does everyone like Ryota? I know you all can't wait for chapter 5, and to be honest so am I. Look forward to it.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Sorry I'm late with this chapter. Been busy with finals and graduation. But guess what. Now it's SUMMER! I have the freedom to write as much as possible now. As always, reviews, comments, and suggestions are welcome.**

Eterna Forest was densely populated with trees. Misaki and I walked through the woods battling mobs of wild pokemon. After some training, Misaki's Piplup and Budew evolved, along with my Starly.

While going through the forest, we ran into another player. It was a girl with braided hair that was a vine green color. The cursor showed her name was Cheryl.

"Hello" she said. On closer inspection, she looked about 15. She wore a light green dress that looked like it was the color of grass.

"Um do you know the way out of the woods? I'm a little lost." she continued.

"Don't you have a map in your menu?" I asked.

"Wait. I can do that?" she asked.

Oh brother, this girl's even greener than her dress. I can't just leave her though.

"Yeah. I'll show you." Misaki replied.

After a quick tutorial on how to fully operate the menu, we decided to lead Cheryl through the rest of the forest. We ran into a few wild pokemon on the way, but with my Staravia, Misaki's Prinplup, and Cheryl's Beutifly, we swept through them easily.

Towards the end of the forest, we ran into a creepy old house with an old lady standing in front. We walked up to her and saw that she was an NPC due to the "?" above her head.

"Is there something wrong miss?" I asked. In response, a window opened up in front of me. It was a quest window.

(Do you want to start the "Haunted House" quest?) it asked. I looked over to Misaki and Cheryl to ask if they were up for it. In response, they both nodded. I pressed the Yes tab.

"Oh you must be trainers!" the old woman cried. "Please help me. An evil pokemon has taken over my poor house. I beg of you, please get rid of it."

"Sure thing. Leave it to us." I replied. Turning to the girls, I said "It looks like the quest's objective is to defeat a wild pokemon somewhere in the house. Judging from her story, it's probably a ghost type so be on your guard."

"Got it. We'll be careful Ren." Misaki told me.

We slowly walked into the house. Out of nowhere, the doors slammed shut. The only lighting in the room were dim lights and a chandelier on the ceiling.

"What's going on?" screamed Cheryl, trembling.

At her words, shadows spread across the room and covered us. My vision went black.

_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_

**Misaki POV:**

"What happened?" I said groggily as I slowly came to.

Where was I? I looked around. It seemed that we were still inside the house. However, instead of the entrance, it looked more like a long hallway with an endless amount of doors on the sides.

"Ow my head. Where are we?" said a voice that came out of nowhere.

I jumped when I heard the voice. It was Cheryl.

"Cheryl!" I gasped. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah. I'll live" she replied. "Where's Ren?"

I looked around beside me. He was nowhere to be seen.

"Ren! Where are you" I yelled. My voice echoed down the hallway. Suddenly a figure came into view.

"Ren? That you?" I asked, squinting my eyes. The figure became clearer and clearer and then I saw.

_That wasn't Ren._

I don't know what that was. It was a gassy sphere floating towards us. It had a creepy face on it. My reflexes suddenly screamed 'Ghost'. I didn't know what it wanted. I just wanted to get away from it.

"Is that a pokemon?" asked Cheryl.

Suddenly my memory jogged. Ren's words echoed "There's probably ghost type pokemon here."

Of course. This wasn't some dead spirit wondering about. It was just a ghost type pokemon!

"Payback time for scaring me!" I yelled. "Prinplup let's go!"

Out came my trusted partner Prinplup.

I can't get scared here! I have to become stronger! "Prinplup bubble beam!" I commanded. It easily took out the ghost pokemon. However I soon wish I hadn't attacked. Tens, no hundreds of the same pokemon appeared, each creepier than the last.

"Let's get out of here!" screamed Cheryl.

After returning Prinplup to its pokeball, I quickly followed suit.

_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_

**Ren POV:**

"Misaki! Cheryl! Where are you?!"

No matter how loud I yelled, no response would come.

After coming to in this hallway, I desperately searched for my two companions. The silence was getting a little creepy though.

"Hehehehe" a small voice started to echo throughout the hallway.

Just what was going on? I decided to check my map to see if there was any more detailed information. When I opened it, the biggest shocker yet came. According to the map, I was still at the entrance of the mansion where the army of shadows attacked.

'Come on! Think! There has to be an answer to this!' I kept thinking this to myself. This endless hallway, the shadows, my position on the map, all of it must be connected somehow.

Out of nowhere a round gassy creature appeared. It was the ghost type pokemon Ghastly. But it wasn't alone. Hundreds of them seemed to be surrounding me.

'Crap! There's too many!' I thought to myself as I ran away at full speed. The horde of Ghastly wouldn't let me get away that easily though. Eventually one came close enough and used lick on me, forcing me to trip. Once the rest caught up, a flurry of shadow balls came flying at me. I got up and ran away in time to avoid the direct hit by the attack, but I couldn't escape the shock wave.

'Damn it! I'll run out of hp at this rate' I thought. "No choice but to fight. Monferno lets..."

At that moment I noticed something strange. My hp which should have been depleted a little from the earlier attacks, hadn't even gone down by one point. It was as if the attack didn't do anything, as if it was an illusion.

'That's it!' I finally realized. Sending out Monferno, it got ready to battle.

"Monferno, use mach punch on me" I commanded. Monferno stood in confusion at first, but when I nodded to erase its doubts, it obeyed.

At the very moment of impact from the mach punch, the setting I was in completely changed. I was back at the entrance of the mansion just like it said on my map. Looking around I saw Misaki and Cheryl collapsed on the floor; a shadowy aura surrounding them.

"Guys! Wake up!" I yelled as I ran over. But a stream of lightning stopped me in my tracks.

The origin of the thunderbolt was a pokemon. It looked like a small red top surrounded by an aura of electricity. It's cursor showed the name Rotom.

"I guess you're the pokemon the old woman talked about." I asked it. As an answer it snickered like a villain in a cartoon. It then releases a flurry of thunderbolts towards me. After dodging them, I sent out Monferno.

"Flame wheel" I called out. Monferno became surrounded in an aura of fire and spun itself straight towards Rotom. The blow lowered Rotom's hp by about a third. However, while Monferno was stuck in mid air from the attack, Rotom used thundershock, lowering Monferno's hp to about 60%. After a furious clash of moves, Rotom was left with about 10% of hp while Monferno still had 40%. I wasn't gonna let this chance slip by. I threw a pokeball at it, and with 3 rattles, it clicked.

"Alright!" I exclaimed. "Did you guys see that?" I said to Misaki and Cheryl. "Oh yeah. Forgot you were still asleep."

I sent out Rotom and asked if it could wake them up. Obeying me it used thundershock on them and they awoke with a jolt, literally.

Ok. Not what I had in mind, but it worked.

"Wha-what happened?" exclaimed Misaki as if she had just woken up from a dream (well technically she did).

"This Rotom here put us all in a trance. But I caught it so it should be alright I think"

"YOU THINK! YOU BETTER BE DAMN SURE IT WON'T DO THAT AGAIN! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT IT WAS LIKE IN THAT NIGHTMARE!" screamed Misaki.

_Note to self: Never pull a prank on Misaki if I want to stay alive._

"No problem. It'll all be fine now. Let's get going." I told her.

All three us us exited the mansion, and went over to the old woman NPC.

"Oh thank you trainers." she cried. "Now I can enter my house again."

"No problem ma'am" Cheryl said.

After receiving our reward, which composed of money, some healing items, and some dusk balls, we went on our way through the rest of the woods.

"Thank you both so much!" Cheryl told us as we approached the exit. "Thanks to you, I was able to exit the forest, and we got to have a cool adventure in that quest."

After we registered with her as friends, we went our two separate ways once we got to Eterna City. By then, nighttime was already well under way.

"That took longer than expected." I said to Misaki.

"Only cause you had to do that stupid haunted house quest." she responded.

"I don't remember hearing you complain when we accepted it." I countered.

After some petty arguing that we would both forget about by morning, we went to the hotel, rented a two bed room and drifted off into sleep.

**A/N: Well that's chapter 5 people. I hope everyone likes it.**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Time for another chapter. I hope you all like it. And remember: Comment, Review, Like, and Favorite.**

"Man I barely slept last night." I yawned to Misaki as we were eating breakfast.

"Well why don't you just have Rotom put you in a trance. You'll get plenty of sleep then." Misaki giggled.

"Very funny"

"So Ren, where's our next stop?"

Both Misaki and I had defeated Gardenia, the Eterna gym leader. We decided to see the sights Eterna had to offer, which lasted the rest of the day.

"Hearthome City is up next. It's the largest city in the entire Sinoh region. To get there we have to go through Mt. Coronet".

It's weird, but no one feels like this is a game anymore. It feels more like a whole new world. To us, this world isn't the cluster of ones ands zeros that it is to those on the outside world. Come to think of it, I wonder how everyone on the outside is taking in the info of this "death game". The one I worry about the most is Clair, my little sister. I've always been there to watch after her. Now that I'm stuck in here, how is she holding up? It's all the more reason I have to beat this game. For Clair.

A random stranger ran into the pokemon center, interrupting my thoughts.

"Help! Somebody! A group called Team Reaper is terrorizing the streets!"

"What!" Misaki screamed.

As if to add to our surprise, the player that just ran in here was suddenly stabbed in the back by something. The objects in his back were thin violet needles. He fell to the floor and shattered into fragments, indicating he was dead.

That was the pokemon move, poison sting!

Shrieks of horror filled the pokemon center, and a lone player slowly walked in. She had pinkish violet hair that went down to her shoulders. She had a red long coat on. It was unbuttoned and showed a uniform she was wearing. It was a grey vest with an emblem on the breast pocket that looked like a reaper. She wore red shades that covered her eyes. At her side was a Golbat.

"Alright. If you don't want to end up like the dead fool there, hand over all your pokemon now!" she yelled.

'This can't be good' I thought.

"How did he die?" said a trembling player. "The towns are supposed to be safe zones."

"Heh we'll it helps when you have someone who helped make the game on your side. The entire safety net in Eterna City is gone." smirked the girl.

This situation was getting worse by the minute.

"But how can we protect ourselves without our pokemon?" said a girl intimidated by the deadly woman's presence.

"Simple. Join Team Reaper!" exclaimed the woman. "Join and help Team Reaper conquer this game! We take pokemon from the weak and distribute them among our members. And all that get in our way will perish! Does anybody want to be an example?"

As she turned her gaze to a trembling girl, she smirked. "Looks like we have a volunteer!" She exclaimed. The little girl cried out a shriek of horror. "Golbat use..."

"Staravia! Whirlwind!" I cried out. Staravia used its wings and whipped out a mighty gale, blowing Golbat and the woman through the air and crashing into the wall.

"You little brat! You'll pay for that!" the woman viciously yelled at me.

Misaki grabbed a pokeball, ready to fight, but I stopped her right away.

"I've got this. You get everyone out of here. I don't want anyone getting caught in the crossfire of this." I told her.

Misaki hesitated, but soon nodded understandingly. She ran with everybody, guiding them out safely. After she left, I walked over to the door and blocked it from the snarling woman glaring at me with hatred.

"Let's settle this punk!" she screamed.

"My pleasure" I replied.

The next few minutes were the most intense I've ever lived. Staravia and Golbat danced through the pokemon center, lowering each other's hp little by little.

Eventually I backed her into a corner. Right when I was about to end it, the window next to her shattered and a player jumped in.

"Madame Agatha. We have been ordered to fall back to HQ immediately" he informed her.

"What! On who's orders?" she snarled back angrily.

"Sir Thoron's. He said the virus won't last much longer." the underling replied.

"Damn it all! Don't you dare forget this, boy!" she hissed towards me as she and the grunt lept out the window into the city.

"Darn. Almost had her." I cursed under my breath. I ran outside to check on the situation.

The city was a mess. Debris from the battles that had taken place throughout the city filled the air. Severely injured pokemon and trainers filled the streets. It looked like the aftermath of a bomb going off.

_What the hell happened?_

I saw Misaki running through the streets toward me.

"Ren!" she cried. "Thank god you're okay!"

"Misaki! What happened out here?" I asked.

**A/N: I hope you all like the antagonist intro. I know the whole "Team" thing is cliché, but I honestly couldn't think of anything better. Look forward to next week.**


	7. Chapter 7

Misaki's description of what took place while I was battling that woman known as Agatha was in a word, horrifying.

When Misaki got everyone out of the pokemon center, the streets of Eterna were filled with heated battles between trainers and Team Reaper grunts. She joined the battling trainers once everyone else got to a building being used as a safe house for those who didn't have the courage to fight. During the intense fight, the members of Team Reaper slowly began to retreat. They were now in their HQ at the north end of Eterna City.

She heard how the battle started from one of the trainers in the streets. An army of Reaper grunts came marching into the streets telling everyone to hand over their pokemon and join Team Reaper, or suffer the consequences. Once a few trainers rebelled, Eterna City became a war zone.

The total casualties weren't tallied up. Nobody wanted to hear whatever the horrifying number was. One thing was clear: Team Reaper must be taken down. We had their HQ surrounded, ready to move in once everyone was healed. We were recruiting players for a raid party at the moment. Misaki and I decided to sign up. We were taking Team Reaper on on their home turf. We were gonna need all the help we could get. A player named Riley, the player who was the first to defy Team Reaper's orders, was elected leader of the raid team. He had jet black hair, and wore a blue and black coat and hat. His pants were as black as his hair. His main pokemon partner was an Onix.

I was elected as vice-captain of the raid group, since I was the only one who held his own against one of the admins of Team Reaper, Agatha.

"Is there anyone else that will join the raid group?" asked Riley.

"I'm in." a voice called out from the group. He walked up calmly through the crowd. His black hair and white jacket seemed very familiar to me, but I couldn't put my finger on where I had seen him before until I saw his face.

It was Ryota!

"Let's get one thing clear though. I'm not taking orders from anyone. Got it?"

"Now wait a second, you can't just..." Riley started, but I cut him off.

"Understood." I stated. "We won't order you around as long as you don't do anything to endanger the attack."

"I'm glad we understand eachother." said Ryota as he walked into the group of trainers we had assembled.

I know it probably pissed Riley off to just let Ryota do whatever he wanted, but Ryota wouldn't have joined otherwise. I understood how he felt. He didn't want any weaklings getting in his way. Besides, we needed all the skilled trainers we could get, and Ryota's skill was one of the best I've seen in PWO yet.

"Ok everyone, I'd like to thank you all for joining us in this raid." Riley started as he addressed the group of trainers we gathered. "Team Reaper's actions cannot go unpunished. We must attack and show them that they cannot do whatever they please. Now let's go and bring the fight right to the front door of those bastards!"

The crowd cheered with confidence. Well, all except for Ryota of course. Riley then went on to explain the plan.

"Ok, we're splitting up into two teams. Team 1 will include Ren, Misaki, and Ryota. The rest of you and I will be Team 2. Team 2 will go straight in and attack Team Reaper head on, creating a distraction so Team 1 can sneak in, find out who bypassed the safety code for Eterna City, and take them out. Any questions."

Nobody raised their hand so we put the plan straight into motion. Ryota wasn't ecstatic to be in a team, since he preferred going solo, but it was better than having Riley breathing down his neck every five minutes.

Riley's team charged straight in, smashing through the gates, into the courtyard of Team Reaper's five story building. With all the battling going on out there, Misaki, Ryota, and I snuck around the back. There were two guards between us and the small back entrance.

"So what's the plan?" Ryota asked.

"There's only two guards. Let's just take them out and go in." Misaki whispered.

"Attack them straight on and we'll have an army to deal with" Ryota countered.

"He's right Misaki" I agreed. "We'll need to attack and take them out before they can react and call for backup."

"So how do we do that?" Ryota asked impatiently.

"Ok, here's what we'll do. Misaki, you have Roselia use grass whistle on them. It won't have a total sleep effect on players, but it will make them drowsy." I started. "Ryota and I will then attack with our fastest pokemon at full speed. If we're lucky, we can take them out before they know what hit them."

"Got it." Misaki replied as she sent out her Roselia.

Roselia's grass whistle quickly made our two unsuspecting enemies yawn loudly. At that moment, Ryota's Luxio and my Staravia took out the hp of both them and their pokemon in seconds.

"Alright let's move!" I told them and we ran inside the building.

Luckily for us, the majority of the building seemed empty. Riley and everyone else must be putting up one hell of a fight outside. But it was up to us to keep casualties to a minimum by defeating whoever bypassed Eterna's safety net.

We eventually reached a door that had quite a number of guards stationed at it.

"Bet ya that's where we need to go." Misaki smiled.

"Ok. No more sneaking around" I said. "We need to wrap this up as soon as we can. We'll charge through together and burst through that door. Ready guys? One... two... three... GO!"

With that we charged straight out of the frying pan and into the fire. It took us about 2 minutes to defeat all the guards there. Once they surrendered, we tied them up and charged into the guarded room. At first everything was dim. Then blinding lights illuminated the room.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" a voice spoke up. Its owner was on a platform above us. It was a man who looked like he was in his late 20s. He wore the same grey uniform as the rest of Team Reaper along with a green tie. A black jacket was also worn by him. His pants were a shade of green, similar to his tie. His hair was a grayish brown and neatly combed to the side.

"Who are you?" I yelled up to him.

"My name is Thoron. You may not believe it, but I was a part of the group of scientists that created this game. Sadly, I was trapped in this game unknowingly, like the rest of you." he replied.

"A scientist? Then what the hell are you doing, trying to PK everyone?" I asked.

"I plan to take revenge on the man who trapped me here. To do that, I will obtain all of the strongest pokemon and be invincible! Team Reaper's interests will help me do that, so I joined them and offered my skills to create a virus that can bypass the Anti-Crime Code of this city. Sadly it has not been perfected and only lasts for a short time."

"That's your reason for killing hundreds of innocent players!" Misaki screamed at the top of her lungs.

"I don't plan on explaining myself any further to inferior minds." Thoron calmly told us. "Instead I'll let this do the talking!" he yelled sending out a pokemon. The pokeball opened up and a Gastrodon appeared.

"Hold it right there Thoron!" a voice cried out, and a figure appeared from the shadows. It was Agatha. At her side was a Misdreavus, not Golbat like before.

"I have a score to settle with that one brat!" she yelled pointing at me.

"Fine, but do you think you can take all three of them at once? Use your head." Thoron replied.

"Do whatever you want with the other two, but that one kid is mine!" Agatha snarled.

"Alright guys, time to fight!" I yelled. It was a 3v2 battle. On our side we had Monferno, Prinplup, and Grottle. Team Reaper had a Gastrodon and a Misdreavus.

Thoron and Agatha immediately called out attacks. Misdreavus used psybeam and Gastrodon used mud shot.

"Dodge!" we all commanded to our pokemon. All three of them barely avoided the assault.

"Prinplup, bubble beam!"  
"Grottle, razor leaf!"  
"Monferno, mach punch!"

The three let out a flurry of attacks, damaging our opponents.

Constant assaults of long range attacks filled the room for the next few minutes, with no clear winner in sight.

All of the pokemon battling were at about 30% health. It was time to end this once and for all. Every trainer called out a final attack.

"Monferno, fire spin!"  
"Prinplup, bubble beam!"  
"Grottle, razor leaf!"  
"Gastrodon, water pulse!"  
"Misdreavus, shadow ball!"

The five attacks collided and a furious explosion. At that moment, for some odd reason, all our pokemon, who should have been hit by the shock wave, had taken no damage at all.

"Damn." Thoron cursed. "The virus was deleted. I hoped for it to last a little longer. It can't be helped. Stunky Squad assemble!"

Several Stunky appeared in the room. "Use explosion! Destroy the building!"

What! They're insane! They'll kill us all! Even if our hp was safe from pokemon attacks, the collapsing building would still be able to hurt our hp. At that moment, I was proven wrong. A roof opened up, revealing the open sky.

"We'll settle this one day! If you survive that is." Agatha laughed as she and Thoron rode out, hanging onto two Golbat.

"We gotta get out of here!" Misaki screamed.

"No shit Sherlock!" Ryota yelled back.

"Keep digging Watson!" Misaki countered.

Ryota and I sent out Staravia. But Misaki lacked a flying type so I let her ride with me on mine.

Barely escaping the explosion, we flew outside and onto the ground. We thought Agatha and Thoron wouldn't get far since they got away using Golbat. We were half right. On top of another building, we saw a helicopter with two people getting inside. No doubt it was those two.

"How'd they get a helicopter?!" one player asked shockingly.

A helicopter was an item that cost a fortune. It was sold here in Eterna for quick travel, since the hm move fly wasn't available till later in the game. No doubt it cost most if not all of the accumulated money Team Reaper got from its members and from the players they killed.

After reporting to Riley that the virus was no longer in effect, he told us how things went on his end. Team Reaper was almost taken out until they used a smokescreen and escaped. While there was some disappointment that Team Reaper wasn't destroyed entirely, there was cheer around the city that our nightmare was over for now. A party was held at the city square that night to celebrate our victory.

As I was toasting with Misaki, we saw Ryota walk towards the hotel.

"Hey, Ryota!" Misaki exclaimed. "Come join us."

"No thanks. I'm not one for parties." Ryota replied in his usual cold tone.

"Come on, don't be a party pooper!" Misaki joked. "Come on, have some fun!"

To my surprise, Ryota actually took her up on her offer.

The party lasted till midnight. Misaki and I didn't wake up till 3 in the afternoon.

"Man that was some party huh Ren?" Misaki giggled.

"Yeah. Sure was." I replied.

To be honest, I was hoping to get to Hearthome City today, but the trip would last too long. To make up for the lost time we would have to make up tomorrow, we battled mobs of wild pokemon. By the end of the day, our pokemon's levels were in the late 20s.

The next day was the best I had seen yet. The sun's warmth seemed to wrap itself around me. Misaki tapped my shoulder.

"Come on Ren let's get going!" she laughed and started running out the gates.

"Alright, alright, wait for me!" I laughed following her. I went through the gates just as she did and went further into my adventure in PWO.

_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_

_I saw him on the hospital bed. All he could do was lie there. Trapped in that death game, I couldn't even imagine what he was going through in there. It was all I could do not to burst into tears when I saw him nowadays._

_His brown hair grew slightly in the past couple of weeks since his imprisonment. His hair couldn't be cut too much, since removing the helmet would lead to instant death. All I could do here was pray for his safe return and hope he didn't show up on the dead list that was increasing every day._

_"Please Dan, come home safely." I cried in a soft voice with tears rolling down my eyes._


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Thanks for all the support everybody. I really appreciate it. Feel free to review and comment.**

**Ren's team: Monferno, Staravia, Rotom, Eevee**

**Misaki's Team: Prinplup, Roselia, Pikachu, Eevee**  
-

"Wow Hearthome's Contest Hall is so big!" Misaki exclaimed.

Misaki always seemed to go nuts whenever she saw a new place. I had gotten used to her crazy outbursts. To be honest, I was just as impressed by the places we traveled to. I just had a less expressional personality than her.

Hearthome City was about the size of Jubelife City. It was covered with various impressive looking buildings. The contest hall was definitely the most impressive out of all of them. It was a dome with dark violet walls and a white top. At the top of the huge entrance, a giant ribbon was shown. It represented the ribbon given to those who won these contests."

"Hey Ren, let's try out a contest!" Misaki suggested.

"No thanks. I'll sit this one out. Contests aren't for me." I replied.

"Suit yourself." Misaki shrugged. "I'm gonna enter and win a contest!"

After wishing her good luck, I watched her walk into the dressing room. I headed towards the stands to watch the show.

"Ladies and gentlemen! I welcome you to Hearthome's Contest Hall. Now please listen while I explain the rules." stated the MC. "Contestants will come out here and send out one pokemon each. That pokemon will use its moves to show it off in the best way possible. The winner will be decided by vote from the audience and judges. Audience votes will count as 1 point and judge votes will count as 10. Now sit back and enjoy the show!"

At those words, the crowd roared wildly. The cheers were deafening.

"Alright time for contestant number 1..." the MC started. The number of contestants were enormous. It was understandable. Contests were extremely popular in the 3rd and 4th generation of the pokemon games. To top it all off, this was one of the first ones held in PWO. Each contestant came out in an elegant dress or tux. The numbers rolled through 40, 41, 42... eventually they reached Misaki.

"And finally we have our last contestant. Number 50. Here's Misaki!" the MC declared.

The curtain rose and a shadow of a person was visible. When the spotlights illuminated her, I could clearly see Misaki. The weird thing was her completely different outfit. She wore a pink and white dress from shoulder to toe. If I could describe her beauty in a word, it would be flawless. Of course Misaki and I had nothing romantic going on and I had no plan to start one. But still, her beauty was incredible. At her side was the Pikachu she had caught recently.

Misaki POV:

The lights were blinding, the crowd was deafening, honestly I was a little nervous now that I was finally on the stage.

'Breathe' I told myself. 'Calm down and relax.' I composed myself and got ready to perform.

"Pikachu, use attract!" I commanded. Pikachu then created several hearts and scattered them midair across the stage. The audience clapped loudly.

"Now use thunderbolt!" I continued. Pikachu jumped high and released a wide spread electrical attack. Its thunderbolt destroyed the hearts, creating a shower of pink sparkles. Now I had the audience going nuts for me.

"Finish with slam!"

Pikachu did a somersault in the air and hit the ground full force with its tail. I bowed and left the stage with the audience in an ecstatic roar.

Ren POV:

I was amazed. Misaki's performance was unbelievable. A window appeared in front of me. It showed a scroll down list of all 50 participants. I immediately scrolled down to Misaki's name and selected her for my vote. A minute passed by and the votes were tallied up.

"And the winner is Misaki!" the MC declared.

Misaki walked up to the stage and accepted the ribbon prize. She was smiling so hard it looked like her face would split.

I saw Misaki later at the lobby. She was jumping with joy. I was starting to worry she might hit the roof.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! I can't believe I won!" she screamed. She went so nuts that she kept hugging me. In a freak accident she kissed me with joy. After realizing what just happened, our eyes went wide open. We put about three feet of distance between us. An awkward silence fell between us until I spoke up.

"You were umm... really great out there" I told her.

"Thanks..." she replied shyly. "Sorry about that. I got a bit emotional."

"No problem" I said, but in reality, the awkwardness was still present. It eventually subsided by the time we went to the hotel. The next day we got up and continued our journey.

**A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter. At the beginning of each chapter I will be giving you any updates on the teams of Ren and Misaki. Look forward to next week.**


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